Positive Health For All krishnanlogamuthu 0004 – X

Back to “Curiosity killed the cat!” left halfway in the previous page.

Do not suppress your curiosity out of fear of being killed by curiosity!
If the giants of mankind in the past had suppressed their curiosity
out of fear of death by curiosity, America, Africa, Australia and the
North and South Poles would never have been discovered, Alps
and Mount Everest (the highest mountain on the planet) would never
have been scaled, [An Unavoidable aside here – British mountain
climber George Leigh Mallory (1886 – 1924) who, along with his
climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, is speculated to have reached the
top of Everest (but did not come back – disappeared from the eyes
of the obervers below – presumably fell and died – his frozen body
discovered forty-six years later, in 1999, by an expedition funded
by the TV show Nova and the BBC, about 2,000 feet below the
summit, where he appeared to have died after a fall. Andrew
Irvine’s body has yet to be found.) on June 8th, 1924, twenty-nine
years before New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary and his
Sherpa companion Tenzing Norgay climbed to the top of Everest in 1953,
planted the two national flags there and came back alive.The funside
has it that after Hillary and Tenzing planted the flags on top of Everest,
a voice (in the South Indian Malayalam – the language spoken in Kerala,
the south-western-most part of India – populated by Malayalam-speaking
Malayalees, including the community called Nairs, who are highly
enterprising, and hence ubiquitous – they would even reach where even
the Sun’s rays cannot reach and would run tea stalls wherever they went,
Everest Summit included!) came from behind, “Enthaa Saare!
Chaayaa tharattaa?”, meaning “Shall I give you a cuppa tea, Sirs?”!
Hillary and Tenzing looked back in bewilderment (“A man here before us?”)
and saw a tiny, frail Nair, in flesh and blood, calling from his already –
established “Nair’s Everest Top Tea stall!”. Funny side not withstanding,
during his fund-raising tour for his next 1923 Everest Expedition, Mallory
was often asked why he wanted to climb Everest. The question seemed
somewhat inane (senseless, unimaginative, empty, unintelligent) to an
adventurer like Mallory He eventually came up with a standard answer,
“Because it’s there!”! The answer became famous when it was quoted
in a story in the March 18, 1923 issue of the New York Times with the
headline “CLIMBING MOUNT EVEREST IS WORK FOR SUPERMEN.”
Mallory’s reply was included in the opening paragraph: ““Why did you
want to climb Mount Everest?” This question was asked of George Leigh
Mallory, who was with both expeditions toward the summit of the world’s
highest mountain, in 1921 and 1922, and who is now in New York. He
plans to go again in 1924, and he gave as the reason for persisting in
these repeated attempts to reach the top, “Because it’s there!””.
Mallory wasn’t being entirely flippant. He went on to explain: “Everest
is the highest mountain in the world, and no man has reached
its summit. Its existence is a challenge. The answer is instinctive,
a part, I suppose, of man’s desire to conquer the universe!”. For those
of you medically oriented, the Great Mountaineer, George Leigh
Mallory should not be confused with the famed George Kenneth
Mallory (1900–1986), who was a famous American pathologist, who,
along with the Hungary – born famous Chief Physician of Harvard,
Soma Weiss (1898-1942) described, in 1929 and later, the serious
Mallory–Weiss syndrome, blood – vomiting hemorrhagic (bleeding)
lacerations / linear tears of the lining mucous membrane at the cardiac
orifice of the stomach, at the junction of the stomach and esophagus
(food – pipe), usually caused by severe retching, coughing or vomiting)
Aside to Mount Everest ends here!], the great oceans would never have
been fathomed, energy sources like electricity would not have been
tapped and tamed, modern transportation on earth, in the skies and
into space would not have been possible, modern communication
like telephony and internet would not have evolved, killer germs
would not have been eradicated / controlled, Life sustenance and
Human Organ Transplantation (except the still evasive, little
understoodand wonder of wonders of an organ, the human brain)
would not have blossomed to today’s level! A lot lot more remains
to be done! As the old saying goes, “The thrill is in the hunt!”!

So take heart from a less – frequently – seen but more encouraging,
optimistic, hope – raising rejoinder to the above proverb saying,
“Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back” – coming
from a famous but most – un – expected – in – this – context source,
Eugene O’Neill aka Eugene Gladstone O’Neill (1888 – 1953),
the famous American tragedian playwright, America’s foremost
playwright, the Founding Father of modern American Drama,
American Theater’s “Master of the Misbegotten”, America’s Titan
of the drama, the second citizen of the USA to win the Nobel Prize
for Literature (in 1936) next only to Harry Sinclair Lewis who was the
first American playwright to win a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930
but Eugene excelled and outshone Sinclair in many ways including
being a record 4 times Pulitzer Prize winner (including one
posthumous!) and the third most widely translated and produced
dramatist next only to Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw.
Eugene O’Neill was fondly called “GENE / Gene” by his most devoted
third / last / “till – death – do – us – part” Actress wife Carlotta
Monterey – Birth Name Hazel Neilson Taasinge – and also friends like
Arthur Bosworth McGinley aka Art McGinley, a long-time sports editor,
Providence Journal’s Obituary Editor and columnist of The Hartford
Times and also a popular toastmaster in Connecticut. Heard of the
much – coveted The McGinley award which is given to a current or
former Alliance member for meritorious service (Art was GENE’s
neighbour and drinking companion for many years – used to boast,
“Gene O’Neil and I tried to drink America dry!”. Unlike GENE,
Art had a very happy childhood and family which made him a highly
jovial person. GENE used the McGinley family as a model for his
only comedy (among the 53 plays published in his life time) and his
24th play, “Ah, Wilderness!”). Shall we also call, for brevity’s sake,
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill as “GENE” herein and hereafter?!),
We called “GENE” “most – un – expected – in – this – context”
because he was not only a man of many sorrows who had a
personal life full of tragedies, coming from a dysfunctional family,
but his plays were also out-and-out tragedies. fully steeped /
soaked in stark tragedy, but for this positive saying, “Curiosity
killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back” and his 24th play,
“Ah, Wilderness!” and an unproduced (in his life time) comedy,
”Now I Ask You,” (a comic spin on Norwegian playwright
Henrik Ibsen’s ”Hedda Gabler”, first published in 1890 –
portraying Hedda, daughter of Gabler and married to Tesman
but the play’s title went by her maiden name rather than her
married name; on the subject of the title, Ibsen wrote: “My
intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as
a personality is to be regarded rather as her father’s daughter
than her husband’s wife.”! The character of Hedda is
considered by some critics as one of the great dramatic
roles in theatre, the “female Hamlet,” and some
portrayals have been very controversial. Depending on the
interpretation, Hedda may be portrayed as an idealistic heroine
fighting society, a victim of circumstance, a prototypical feminist,
or a manipulative villain!). Don’t GENE’s two comedies
interspersed with 52 sorrowful tragic plays and his inspiring
positive saying, “Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction
brought it back” remind you of the bright Silverline in the
Dark / Black clouds which, in turn, inspired the famous
inspirational sayings “Every Cloud has a Silver Lining!”
and “Silver Line Your Black Cloud!” and “Cloud Nine”
(the idiom referring to a state of elation or happiness)!

More on Clouds, GENE and Beating Heart Surgery
in the next page. So long, then!